The Call to Discipleship

Introduction and Prayer for Hearing Christ's Voice

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, June 15th, 1986, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:17 May I urge you to follow, please, in your own Bibles as I read from the 8th chapter of Mark's Gospel, Mark chapter 8, and beginning with verse 31, reading through to the first verse of chapter 9, Mark 8 and verse 31. And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, and the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he spoke the saying openly. And Peter took him and began to rebuke him. But he, turning about and seeing his disciples, rebuked Peter and said, Get behind me, Satan, for you are thinking not the things of God, but the things of men. And he called unto him the multitude with his disciples, and said unto them, If any man be a man of God, he shall be a man of God.

1:31 If any man be a man of God, he shall be a man of God. If any man is willing to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever would save his life shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's shall save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life for his soul?

2:01 For what shall a man give in exchange for his life or his soul? For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also shall be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. And he said unto them, Truly I say unto you, there are some here of them that say, Stand by, who shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God come with power. Now let us again seek the face of God in prayer, and may I urge each of you as I lead in prayer to plead with God that if ever you heard the voice of Christ speaking in the scriptures, you would hear his voice this morning on matters that are no less important, than the loss or the gaining of your never-dying soul. We are dealing this morning in a most focused way with issues that result in the saving or the losing of immortal, never-dying souls.

3:26 Let us pray that God will give us grace to hear with due attention and sobriety. Let us pray.

3:37 Our Father, we have read the words of your beloved Son, who spoke of gaining and of losing one's soul. And we earnestly pray that as we come to the contemplation of his words, of what he himself declared is the path of losing one's soul and the path of gaining one's soul, that we may hear his voice. May there be no confusion in our minds as to the meaning of his words. May there be no indifference in our hearts to the impress and to the appeal of his words. But may we find ourselves, each one from the youngest to the oldest, held captive and then brought into submission. May there be no objection to the word of Jesus. O God, send your Holy Spirit in copious measures of power even into this place this morning that each one of us will know that he has heard your voice.

4:56 And may that voice lead us into the path of life. Hear us, we plead, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Context: Jesus' Identity and the Way of Salvation

5:14 Those of you who have been with us for our consecutive expositions in the Gospel of Mark will know that we are presently in a section that is of tremendous importance in the unfolding of the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. In verses 27 to 30, we have the record of how our Lord at this time, in the private relationship with the Twelve, drew forth that great confession that focused upon the identity of his person. Who do you say that I am? And Peter, speaking for the others, says, You are the Christ, or in the fuller account of that confession in Matthew, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And then, as we have read this morning, at this point, Jesus began to do a new thing with himself. His immediate followers, having established his identity as the Messiah and Son of God, at this point, our Lord begins to teach in blunt and with unmistakable clarity the fact that as Messiah, he must accomplish his work of messianic salvation

6:37 by suffering, rejection, death, and resurrection. And as we saw in our study last Lord's Day morning, when Peter, the one who was the spokesman of the great confession as to the identity of his person, would stand between Christ and the accomplishment of his redemption by suffering and death, our Lord calls him an adversary. He tells him that he must get behind him, that he must not stand in the way that leads to the suffering, the rejection, the death, and the resurrection by which the salvation of sinners alone could be procured. Now, this morning, we come to a section that follows hard on the heels of this confession of the identity of his person, this opening up of the way in which salvation is to be secured, in which the Lord Jesus, teaches things that are of tremendous importance with regard to the great question, who will participate and enjoy the benefits of the salvation secured by the suffering

Overview of the Passage Structure

8:00 and the death and resurrection of Jesus. And in these words, we have some of the most vital, some of the most searching, and in some ways, some of the most devastating, words of our Lord Jesus recorded anywhere in any of the Gospel records. Before we take up the first of two expositions of this section, I want to give you a brief overview of the entire paragraph. The paragraph begins in verse 34 with a specification of those who are addressed.

8:40 And then, after Mark has specified who it is, that our Lord is addressing, there is a delineation of the non-negotiable terms of discipleship, life, and salvation. After that, we have a four-fold encouragement to comply with these terms. You will notice that verses 35, 36, 37, and 38 all begin with the word for. And in those statements, our Lord is giving a four-fold encouragement to all who hear Him to comply with these flesh-withering terms of discipleship, life, and salvation. And then, finally, as a capstone to the entire section, our Lord gives a solemn prophecy in Mark's Gospel. It's chapter 9 and verse 1. But in the parallel passages, Matthew 16, 28, Luke 9, 27, these words are included as part of the same paragraph as upgraded Word of how the Lord prays in miss alpha S is Gracias to you by which he validates all of the claims that he has made about himself, the demands that he makes upon others,

10:06 and then the solemn encouragements that he gives to enter upon the way of discipleship. Matthew 16, 28, and Luke 9, 27 are the words to help us to improve. Some of the innumerable authentic notes that you can hear in our reading Father Buchman has passed as we penned these these verses still are so many. Places, including some writers as well, are important even for ordained disciples who Durrell Bast internet in our presence.

The Universal Application of Discipleship's Terms

10:14 That, then, is the basic structure of the passage. This morning we will take up only the first two elements in that paragraph, namely, the specification of those addressed by our Lord, and then the delineation of the non-negotiable terms of discipleship. First of all, then, verse 34, the specification of those addressed by our Lord. And He called unto Him the multitude with His disciples and said unto them.

10:55 You will remember that at this period in the ministry of our Lord, He is seeking, for the most part, circumstances of seclusion and retirement from the multitudes. He has come to that point where He is committed to an intensified period where He is committed to an intensified period He has come to that point where He is committed to an intensified period of instruction to the twelve. And yet, though our Lord is committed to this relatively retiring ministry, He can never be hidden. The crowds are never far away.

11:30 Therefore, after drawing forth in a private context the great confession about His person and charging them, as we read in verse 30, that they should not make this known to others, then our Lord privately begins to speak in blunt terms about His impending suffering, rejection, death, and resurrection. But in all of this, you see, the crowd is never far away. So after Peter rebukes Him, and He counter-rebukes Peter, this paragraph begins with the statement that our Lord called unto Him unto Himself the multitude with His disciples. So apparently, at some relatively close distance, the multitudes were milling. And rarely throughout the Gospel of Mark do we find the Lord ever having to call the multitude unto Himself. We have seen passage after passage in which the multitudes pressed in upon Him We have seen passage after passage in which the multitudes pressed in upon Him without Him ever having to summon them into His presence.

12:48 It could be that the multitudes had begun to get the message at this time, that the Lord was seeking deliberately to have periods of retirement with His own immediate followers. Whether that is the case or not, we do have this very clear record that at this point, Jesus called unto Himself the mixed multitude, and also His own disciples. There is therefore a very clear specification of those addressed by our Lord in this context. Now you say, why press the point?

13:33 Well, for the simple reason that there are many in our day who are prepared to assert that the conditions for discipleship, and the terms of being saved are two entirely different things. There are many who assert, who write, and who preach that it is possible to be a believer, and therefore in saving union with Christ, and on the way to heaven, but not to be a disciple in loving attachment to Christ expressed in a love of God, and in a love of God, and in a love of God, and in a love of God, and in a love of God, and in a love of God. There are many who assert in a life of self-denial and obedience, and therefore be utterly unprepared to live here on earth as one ought to live, but that being a believer and a disciple are two entirely distinct and separate realities. For example, one excellent commentator, whom I consult almost without exception every week in my preparation, for these expositions is one of the 20 or so commentators that I seek diligently to read, week by week, this otherwise excellent commentator, commenting on this passage, said,

15:00 the reference is not to the way of salvation, but to the path of discipleship. Well you see, if the reference here is not to the way of salvation, then what is the way of salvation? Why does our Lord, in giving these four incentives and encouragements to comply with the terms of discipleship, make it a matter of saving or losing one's soul? Why does He make it a matter of being owned or rejected of Christ in the day of judgment?

15:41 If the saving and the losing of the soul is not a matter of salvation, I don't know what is. If being accepted or rejected by Christ in the day of judgment is not a matter of salvation, I don't know what is. And therefore it is vital for us, on the threshold of our study, to understand that when marked by the end, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit specifies those whom our Lord addresses as the vast mixed multitude along His disciples. That which is to follow is of universal application.

16:38 And I plead with you this morning, young and old alike, as we draw near beholding our Lord on His way to deliver us from this world, to deliver us from this world, to die upon His cross, to form the foundation of our salvation in His own elusive work for sinners.

17:00 We must take seriously what Jesus says in that very setting about the place of your cross. The benefits of His cross are to be yours when you stand before Him in the day of judgment. We dare not treat lightly the things that are in our lives, the fact that these words were spoken not to an exclusive group of those who are already attached to Him alone, and are spoken to augment the measure of their attachment. They were spoken clearly to the multitude, and spoken to a multitude whom Jesus deliberately called unto Him. They were spoken clearly to the multitude whom Jesus deliberately called unto Him. They were spoken clearly to the multitude whom Jesus deliberately called unto Him. Now having considered the specification of those addressed by our Lord, now we come in the second place, and this will constitute the heart of the message, the delineation of the non-negotiable terms of discipleship, life, and salvation.

The Essence of Discipleship: Volitional Attachment to Christ and His Word

18:18 Here our Lord delineates the non-negotiable terms of discipleship, life, and salvation. Here our Lord delineates the non-negotiable terms of discipleship, life, and salvation. And as we contemplate His words, we shall do so under two simple headings. Number one, the essence of discipleship, and the specific demands of discipleship.

18:44 First of all then, the essence of discipleship. What is it? Well, it's bound up in these words. He called unto Him the multitude with His disciples, and said unto them, If any man would come after Me.

19:06 A more literal, a more wooden translation, If anyone is willing after Me to follow.

19:18 What then is the essence of discipleship? Jesus describes it as nothing more or less than the commitment of the disciples to Him. The commitment and constant set of the will to follow Him. If any man is willing to follow or to be following Me.

19:45 Now that term in the Gospels, following Christ, is synonymous with being a disciple of Christ. For example, in Matthew chapter 9, in the call, it is given to Matthew or to Levi. We find this account in Matthew 9 and verse 9. And as Jesus passed by from thence, He saw a man called Matthew sitting at the place of Toad.

20:17 And He said unto him, Follow Me. And he arose and followed Him. Follow Me. Matthew 19.

20:30 Matthew 19 and verse 21. In Jesus dealing with the rich young ruler. The climactic element of the call of Christ to this man if he would have everlasting life is this. If you would be perfect, sell what you have, give to the poor, you shall have treasure in heaven, and come follow Me.

20:55 And then again in the Gospel of John, two examples of the same phrase. John chapter 8 and verse 12. A portion we read together last Lord's Day morning. Therefore Jesus spoke unto them, saying, I am the light of the world.

21:13 He that follows Me. There is the verb. He that follows Me, shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life. Here a disciple is described as one who follows, Christ.

21:32 And then John 10 and verse 27. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give unto them eternal life. Here His sheep who are the possessors of eternal life are described as those who follow Christ. Well, if the essence of discipleship, is nothing more or less than the commitment and constant set of the will to follow Christ, what precisely does that mean?

22:12 Well, it means, first of all, a volitional attachment to the person of Christ as He is revealed in the Word of God. In this setting, Jesus had just drawn forth the confession with respect to the identity of His person. Who do men say that I am? Who do you say that I am?

22:39 And when Peter confesses you are the Christ, the anointed Messiah, the Son of God, Jesus then goes on to say that as Messiah, He must suffer, He must be rejected, He must be killed, He must be raised from the dead, and now He says, If any man is willing, to come after Me, the essence of that discipleship described involves volitional attachment to that very person as He is revealed in the Word of God. Attachment to the person who is Son of God. That person who is God's anointed Messiah, Prophet, Priest, and King. That person who, accomplishing his messianic salvation, must suffer, be rejected, and killed, and raised from the dead. He says, If any man is willing to come after Me. You see, the call of Christ again and again is that call that invites and urges people into a relationship of attachment to His person.

23:58 He does not say, If any man will come after My doctrines, after My institutions, after My ordinances, or even after My people, or after My benefits. The call is always, If any man is willing, to come after Me. It is attachment to the person of Christ as revealed in the Scriptures. But it also means volitional adherence to the words of Christ as revealed in the Scriptures.

24:37 You will notice in verse 38 of our text that our Lord brings into the closest conjunction attachment to His person and to His words. For whosoever shall be ashamed of Me, My person, and of My, words. Attachment to His person, attachment to His words. And in our regular consecutive reading this morning, one of the clearest texts on this very point, John 8 in verse 31 and 2, Jesus said to those that had believed Him, If you abide in My word, then are you My disciples. Your attachment to My person is real if you are found remaining in My words. And so the essence of discipleship then is to be understood as not only attachment to the person of Christ as revealed in the Scriptures, but a volitional adherence to the words of Christ as given to us in Scripture. That means embracing the doctrines He teaches us and living by the precepts by which He would govern us.

26:02 You see, it's because this is so much an elementary and fundamental revelation of Scripture that we are confronted with such texts as these. Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that is doing the will of My Father who is in heaven. Matthew 7, 21. Jesus said, The only ones who will enter heaven are those who do the will of God who is in heaven.

26:32 Jesus could say, My sheep hear My voice and they are following Me, My person. And I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. He became the author of eternal salvation unto all that are obeying Him. Hebrews 5, 9.

26:50 1 John 2, 3 and 4. Hereby do we know that we know Him if we keep His commandments. He that saith, I know Him, I am in saving attachment to His person, and keepeth not His commandments, is not in volitional adherence to His precepts. The Scripture says, Such a person is self-deceived.

27:12 He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. So then the essence of discipleship according to our Lord is voluntary attachment to His person, as revealed in the Word, volitional adherence to His words, as embodied in the Word. But someone says, Pastor, no one by nature voluntarily adheres to Christ, voluntarily adheres to the words of Christ. By nature, our hearts are utterly opposed to the rule of Christ, utterly opposed to the Word of Christ.

27:54 That's true. Romans 8, 7. Ephesians 2, 1 to 3, and a host of other Scriptures make this abundantly clear. But when God, in the mystery of regenerating grace, quickens a soul to life, the first actings of a living heart made alive by grace is to run out in attachment to the person of Christ, as revealed in the Scriptures, and joyfully to submit, one's self to the Word of Christ, as contained in the same Scriptures.

Specific Demands: Repudiate Self

28:33 That then is the essence of discipleship. But now then, what are the specific demands of discipleship? If there is this willingness to come after Him, our Lord then sets down three non-negotiable terms, and He does so in the form of three imperatives. Two of them come in a linguistic form which concentrates the attention upon an immediate act, and the third on an ongoing process.

29:15 But here are the demands of discipleship. Are you willing to be attached to the person of Christ, volitionally adhering, adhering to the Word of Christ? Then here are the non-negotiable terms. Number one, he must repudiate himself.

29:39 Look at the language. If any man is willing after me to follow, let him, to catch the force of the imperative I'm going to render it, he must deny himself. Our Lord is saying to the vast multitudes, as well as to His disciples, if you would ever be attached to Me, so that the virtue of what I am about to accomplish as I go to Jerusalem, to suffer, to be rejected, to be killed, and rise again from the dead, if you would be so attached to Me, as to know the virtue of My suffering on behalf of sinners, here are the non-negotiable terms. Number one, you must repudiate yourself. Now, obviously, the two key words are deny and himself. And we need not look far for the significance of the meaning of the word deny, for this is the very word used in chapter 14 with reference to Peter's subsequent activity at the trial of Jesus.

30:59 Matthew of Mark 14 and verse 30. And Jesus said unto him, that is unto Peter, Verily I say unto you, that you today, even this night, before the cock crow twice, shall, here's our word, deny Me three times. With respect to the prophesied activity of Peter, it is called a denial of Christ. Peter responds, verse 31, he says, if I must die, I will not, here's our word again, I will not deny you. And then it's used again in verse 72 of this chapter, straightway the second time, the cock crew and Peter called to mind the word how Jesus said unto him, before the cock crow twice, you shall deny Me. Three times. Now what did Peter do?

32:06 Well, those of you who know the gospel narrative are familiar with Peter's actions. When the little maid said, surely you're one of them, he said, no, no, I know nothing about him, I'm not one of them. He repudiated all connection with Christ. And later on, when others made the accusation, he cursed and he swore, and he utterly detached himself from Jesus.

32:29 He disowned and renounced all connection to the person and cause of Jesus, and that is called in one word, denial. Now that's the strong, intensified form of the verb deny that is used in Jesus' non-negotiable terms of discipleship. Would you be attached to Me, he says, are you willing to come after Me to be my true follower, to be my true disciple? Would you be so attached to Me that the virtue of my work as Messiah in my identity as Son of God will be yours now and in the age to come?

33:13 If you are willing to come after Me, you must do something with regard to yourself that finds a parallel in the activity of Peter with respect to Jesus. There was repeated and for the time, resolute discipline and the avowal of all attachment to and connection with Jesus of Nazareth. He cursed and he swore, I know not the man. He put as much distance as words could put between himself and the now suffering Savior.

33:53 Now you've got to do this with regard to a commodity called here in the text yourself. Look at it. If any man will come after Me, let him repudiate, let him disown and renounce all connection to himself. Now isn't it interesting?

34:16 Jesus does not speak of repudiating something external to myself, something that I possess as myself, but repudiating myself. Now what's the assumption behind that demand? It is simply this, that in that vast crowd of people with all the varieties of sinful manifestations, there may have been some proud self-justifying Pharisees in the crowd. They were usually there.

34:52 There may have been some harlots and publicans in the crowd. They were usually there. There may have been some nice middle-class people whose sins were just marginal and occasional and occasionally indecent but generally accepted patterns of behavior. The full spectrum of sinnerhood was there.

35:13 But the underlying assumption is that in every single sinner, no matter what the specific manifestations of his sins may be, that there is a core of idolatrous, sinful self-centeredness in every single one of them. And that not a one of them will, until he detaches himself fundamentally and radically from that idolatrous self-centeredness. That's what Jesus is saying. If you would come after me, if you would enter into volitional attachment to my person, volitional adherence to my word, the starting point is a fundamental radical detachment from idolatrous self-centeredness. Because the common denominator of all sinners is just an idolatrous self. All sheep have gone not to lechery, not to drunkenness, not to thievery,

36:42 not. But we have turned the common denominator. We've turned every one of us. To his own.

36:59 And as with that vast multitude then so with a congregation of this size. In some it produces a life of respectability and religiosity. And maybe even like the Pharisees, a scrupulous adherence to all the of formal religion. While inwardly full of dead men's bones and all unclean.

37:27 It may mean for some of you as it did for some of them, thumbing your nose at all of God's laws. Shacking up with any girl you want to. Breaking the marriage in licentiousness and lechery and open lawlessness. May mean any state in between.

37:52 But this you have in common with all who comprise the vast multitude that Jesus called to himself. Each one of us by nature lives a life of idolatrous centeredness. And we cannot enter into saving union with Christ without a fundamental radical repudiation of that self-centeredness. If any man wills to come after me he must himself.

38:30 Now let me ask you a very simple question. Do you have a clue of what Jesus is talking about? Or do you sit there saying what in the name of all rationality is the preacher talking? My friend listen.

38:48 I want to state it as plainly as I know how. If you have ever been brought by the Holy Spirit to the trauma of seeing what you have been as an idolatrous self-centered sinner and have seen you this morning for the ugly of his wrath has necessitated the horrible suffering and agony and bloodletting of the Son of God. Jesus said that's a non-negotiable of saving attachment. But then there's a second non-negotiable and it's this. Look at the text.

Specific Demands: Take Up One's Cross

39:53 If any man is willing to come after me he must repudiate himself. But now the second non-negotiable is this. And take up his cross. To give a sense of the verb take up we could render it must lift up and begin to carry his cross.

40:21 He must lift up and begin to carry his cross. Now put yourself in the situation of that multitude. Jesus has called the multitude to himself. Palestinians in that northern area.

40:41 One thing they had all witnessed under Roman rule they had witnessed execution by crucifixion. For them the word cross meant all the issues surrounding rejection suffering and death as an outcast of society. And Jesus is saying if you would come after me if you would be attached to me I the Messiah am of God's gold who must suffer who must be rejected who must be killed who must rise again if you would come into save me and begin to carry your cross. And what did that cross include? One has accurately described it this way. The cross includes all that which divine providence brings in the way of trials affliction and hardship as a result of adherence to the person the doctrines and the ways of Christ.

42:03 What is the cross? It is the rejection of the world the opposition of the world of the world to the one who would be attached in faith and love and all that divine providence brings to such a person in the way of his attachment to Christ attachment to his person his doctrines and his way that affliction and hardship that come that is his cross. And so our Lord made it very plain in these cryptic words to the vast multitude that if they desired life and salvation from his cross attachment to him that their oaths awaited them and they must deliberately volitionally knowingly and begin to carry it in his trail. One commentator has beautifully captured the spirit of our Lord's words when he wrote the cross is that suffering alone which results from our faithful connection with Christ and the intimation is that each disciple will have his share of such suffering

43:32 the thought grows overwhelmingly Christ with his cross leads and all his disciples each loaded with his cross in one immense procession like men who are led away to be crucified. Now Jesus said that's a non-negotiable term of discipleship he must lift up let me say by way of application that as we had occasion to note last week the cross is indeed the touchstone of all saving religion follow closely what I say as surely as all saving religion will see in Christ's cross that which Christ alone could accomplish for sinners because of who he was the God-man the appointed representative of sinners true Christianity will see which in Christ's cross exclusive to him the virtue and the merit of his obedience and his death on behalf of sinners any religion that tries to mix

44:57 one milligram of man's works into the virtue and merit of that which Christ accomplished by his cross the purity of revealed religion Christ's cross is the touchstone but it is balanced on the other side by the touchstone of our cross and as Jesus is announced that he must procure redemption by his cross he says to the multitudes with his disciples if you would know life and salvation and be vindicated in the last day as there is no salvation but that which is founded in the exclusive work of Christ upon his cross there is no possession of salvation by anyone who does not take up his cross liberalism denies the uniqueness of Christ's cross monasticism makes us believe in the saviour of man's cross

46:18 and forgiveness sight I have had of Christ and the uniqueness of his person and work and to him gladly shoulder my cross and I follow in his train and if your sight of Christ crucified has not caused you deliberately and knowingly to take up your cross as if you denied that his cross is the one basis of salvation his cross in the sinner's salvation utterly one of the greatest curses in our day is a form of evangelical and even reformed religion that glory

Specific Demands: Follow Christ Obediently

47:42 without sharing in the suffering the affliction the rejection that comes from saving union with the son of God my bible says it is only if we suffer with him that we reign with him now your bible may read differently but that's what mine says and in seed form our Lord is giving that teaching when he says if any any wills to come after me he must repudiate himself self-centeredness must not be toyed with it must not be whacked at by degrees it must be repudiated as the fundamental premise upon which I live no longer I but I must lift up my cross and carry my cross and then our Lord uses a different tense of this imperative he must be committed to a life of loving obedient attachment to my person look at the language if any man wills to come after me he must repudiate himself lift up and carry his cross and be following after me

49:10 and there he uses the same verb that he uses at the beginning if any man would behind me be following would you behind me be following I go forth to my cross would you be an attachment to me that will bring you in the train of the virtue of my work for sinners then repudiate yourself take up your cross and be following me give yourself to me attach yourself to me not following me so much in terms of Christ is our great example though that certainly is one of the implications of discipleship 1 Peter 2 and 1 John 2 but it's more in the sense of John 10-27 my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me the basis of my life is to follow me the basic pattern of their life is loving obedient attachment to me so that what I say in my word is more than something of interest to them it binds their consciences and it captures their wills and it directs their feet and their hands and their eyes and their emotions and affections

50:38 and relationships and time and money and interest my government over them is real it's practical they follow me they do my will they live out in the strength of my spirit a life of attachment to my person that is not mystical and theoretical but is real so that when I say in my word if thy brother sin against thee rebuke him they obey me if he repent forget him they obey me when I say through my inspired apostles let him that stole steal no more but rather let him work with his hands they obey me and they cultivate a biblical concept of the nobility of work when I say honor father and mother they obey me when I say to them in my holy word husbands love your wives they seek to do that and when I say wives be subject to your husbands they take it seriously they follow me they follow me as a conscious deliberate pattern of life knowing and doing my revealed will is what matters most in life to them

Pastoral Application and Warning Against Self-Centeredness

52:03 our Lord says those are the non-negotiable terms now my friends if that's so now do you see why Jesus said the gate and the way are narrow and few find it though I have reason to believe from a pastoral standpoint that there are not a few of you in this place that there are not a few that there are many of you who can sit here this morning and say blessed be God that I know what it is through grace to do with my unmortified selfhood what Peter did to Jesus I know what it is to be brought to the place where I've repudiated self idolatrous self as the basis of living thank God I know what it is though I wish I knew more I thank God I know what it is to shoulder and carry my cross I know something of fellowship in the sufferings of Jesus and I know something of what it is to follow him albeit poorly and not with the zeal that I long to have I believe there are not a few of you who are in that state but hear me now I'm also convinced that the problem with some of you with whom we have chronic pastoral problems

53:30 lies right here chronic pastoral problems you never make progress shoes that surfaced and crippled you and brought disaffection and distance between you and the Lord and his people and his servants twenty years ago up to the same degree in 1986 what's the problem could it be that the problem is that you've never stood in the presence of the Lord of glory reared back on your hind legs and set a foot in the middle of its human this is why some of you hold in the direction of progress you to yourself my friend listen if you don't you'll go to hell

54:58 as sure as the word of Jesus is the word of God as we shall see next week God willing you're so determined to save your life that is the life built on idolatrous selfhood my ideas about God and the church and his people and the way the work of God should be done my ideas about who should seek after me and who should pay attention to me and how I should be treated my ideas you're determined to passions your love too much too much too much too much to lose way to go straight to hell to cling to idolatrous self you may be religious you may be respectable you may be an honored man or woman in the community but you've never known what it is to be broken and as it were long to vomit out of your soul

56:19 all the vestiges of idolatrous self you are always hedging all your bets in terms of making sure that you come off clean

56:32 Yes, you want to make sure in every situation you never have to be humbled, never be put to shame. In every situation you come off smelling like a lily, never prepared to take the place of an unqualified sinner before God and where necessary before men. Self-righteousness, self-defense, self-will. That's the pattern of your life.

56:58 Oh, my friend, what a horrible tyranny. And it is to deliver men from that tyranny that Jesus went to the cross. He said when Peter would step between him and his cross, get behind me, adversary. Peter, you'll never know salvation unless I go to my cross.

57:20 My friend, are you thinking like a man and not the thoughts of God? Thinking all the time in terms of yourself. And there's just enough of Jesus. There's just enough of Jesus and God and the Bible and His cross to numb your conscience.

57:38 If you utterly turned away from everything that has any connection with Christ and the Bible and His church and His servants and preaching, your conscience would scream at you that you are a totally ungodly man or woman. You can't do that. So you keep just close enough to these realities to numb your conscience, but never close enough to transform the center of your life. What a horrible, horrible way to go to hell.

58:09 Surrounded by the preaching of His cross. While in calculating self-sparing, you make sure there's no cross for you.

58:19 What a horrible way to go to hell. Go to hell you shall, unless you repent and say no to self. Self upon the Lord Jesus. Seeking for mercy and giving yourself up to Him to be His loving, obedient disciple.

Exhortation to Embrace Christ's Non-Negotiable Terms

58:46 To walk with Him according to the revelation of His will in Scripture by the power and by the strength of His Holy Spirit. Dear people, you better not treat lightly the words of Jesus because He called the multitude to Him. I have something weighty to say. Come near, come near, come near!

59:14 And when they drew near with His disciples, He said, Is any of you willing to come near to Him? Is any of you willing to come near to Him? Is any of you willing to come near to Him? Is any of you willing to come near to Him?

59:19 Is any among you of a disposition to follow Me? Is any among you of a disposition to be My disciple? Then you must repudiate yourself! Self-righteousness, self-justification, self-will, self-glory, self-seeking, all of it!

59:40 Repudiate yourself! Then take up and begin to carry your cross. I call you to rejection, to suffering, to affliction. But as My suffering, rejection, and affliction were but the preview to My glory, sharing in My affliction, you will share in My glory.

60:06 Take up and begin to carry your cross, and then commit yourself to a lifetime attachment to Me that will express itself in loving, meticulous obedience to My revealed will, so that what I say, what I say, is not contemplated as a possible option, but in every area of life, what I say, is binding upon your conscience and regulative of your life. If you stagger before such non-negotiable, such radical claims, then meditate upon the four fours that Jesus gives, which, God willing, will form the focus of our meditation next Lord's Day. Contemplate His words. If you say the price is too much, all right, what price are you prepared to put up to barter away your soul? Where can you get something of equal worth to your soul?

61:16 What will you do when the last day He rejects you because you rejected Him on His terms? If you're tempted to think, oh, it's all a bunch of a hoax, He says, some of you shall not taste death till you see the Kingdom of God come with power. And they live to witness His own resurrection, the descent of the Spirit, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the setting up of the Kingdom of God in its present form and manifestation. No, friends, you can't deny it is all a bunch of religious gibberish.

Concluding Prayer of Repentance and Commitment

61:50 It's been validated in space-time history. These are realities. Oh, may God help you to lay them to heart and run after Christ in whom alone forgiveness of sin is to be found, the author of life and salvation. Let us pray.

62:12 Our Father, we thank You for our blessed Lord Jesus Christ and the love that caused Him resolutely to go to the cross, upon which He bore the punishment due to our sins. And as with our mind's eye we behold Him in His nakedness and in His agony, as with our ear we hear His cry of dereliction and abandonment, we confess that our self-centeredness is stripped of all of its euphemistic terms and all of its deceptive forms and we see it in its ugliness against the backdrop of Golgotha. And we would renew our repentance, O God, of all the forms of idolatrous self-centeredness and pray that we may know as we've never known before what it is with increasing spiritual vigor to say no to ourselves, to pick up

63:36 and deliberately to carry our cross, to glory in being counted worthy to share in the sufferings of Christ, and then with ever-increasing singleness of devotion and purpose to follow hard after Him, with a thousand faces crying in our ears to follow this and to follow that, O that we may follow Him, who loved us and gave Himself for us. Seal Your Word to our hearts and may that great and final day reveal that some this day heard the voice of Jesus in the Scriptures and by grace repudiated themselves, took up their cross and began to follow Him. Hear our prayer and answer us, and may the blessings of Your own gracious dealings with us continue to be our portion throughout this day. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.